Family Reunion
by FanfictionWriter83729
Summary: Post2007movie. Three Decepticons made during the battle in Mission City are looking for their family. The first step is getting their brother back.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **do not own Transformers

**Summary:** Post2007movie. Three Decepticons made during the battle in Mission City are looking for their family, including their brother.

**Author note: **I'm trying a narrative approach that is relatively new to me called "in media res." This means that the story will start in the middle of the action, and then we'll have flashbacks or dialogues to explain what happened before as needed. Please tell me how I'm doing!

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Family Reunion

**1**

Starscream dropped right out of the air, grazing Bumblebee's hood mockingly as the scout frantically tried to find an area that wasn't populated by humans. It was the dead of night, and the occupants in the darkened houses were starting to awaken, were starting to look out their windows, and were starting to panic.

No good. Bumblebee would have to face his opponent right in the middle of a suburban neighbourhood. The new Decepticon leader was coming back, and Bumblebee opened his door to let Sam out, with an order to run and not look back.

Sam did not want to leave his friend behind, but he knew that he was more of a hindrance than a help. While the Autobots would attempt to stall and move in order to take the battle away from humans, none of the Decepticons would hesitate in using a human hostage, and right now, he might as well have a huge sign above his head saying, 'Take me!"

By the time Bumblebee was fully transformed, Sam was already running in the opposite direction, his hand hitting speed-dial on his cell phone. Doubtless Bumblebee had already contacted Optimus, Ironhide, Ratchet, and Jazz, who would in turn call the SecDef. Sam was calling—though he loathed to do it—Simmons. Against the Decepticons, they could pull no punches.

"Witticky," Simmons mumbled into the phone. "If this is another one of your crank calls—"

"Hey! One, it's _Witwicky, _and two, you fully deserved those and—never mind! It's Star-what's-his-face! He freakin' attacked us!"

"_What?_ In the middle of a _town?_" Sam could hear Simmons getting out of bed and getting armed. The sounds of metal and more metal could be heard over the phone. Even in this dire situation, Sam had to roll his eyes. _Sheesh, does the guy sleep with a fully decked armoury under his pillow or something? Wait a sec, I'm one to talk, I can't get to sleep without Bumblebee out in the driveway… Shaddup, subconscious, get back to the point here!_

"Right in the middle of the neighbourhood." Sam, though Bumblebee had told him not to, looked back, and in doing so, met Starscream's gaze. What he saw there nearly made the boy stumble, and shuddering, he turned around again.

"Just tell me where you are and my team and I will—"

"_Shit!_" Simmons heard a clattering sound, and he hoped that the kid didn't have the idiocy of dropping the damn phone.

"Witwicky? Hey, kid? Kid? Sam? What's going on?"

He got no answer though, because Sam had, stopping abruptly, sent himself sprawling on the asphalt, and had dropped the phone. It skittered on the ground and came to rest right in front of a tire of an all-too familiar Decepticon.

He had hit an intersection, and right in front of him, illuminated by a dying, flickering streetlight overhead, was Barricade. The police car had rolled to a stop not two meters in front of him, crushing the phone, and revved his engine in what sounded like amusement. Sam took it as, _I'm giving you a five second head start. _

Sam scrambled to his feet, and looked back again, keeping Barricade in the corner of his eye. Bumblebee was already sustaining massive damage from trying to keep Starscream away from the houses and the terrified occupants therein. If Barricade were to join in the fray…

Hoping that any of the others—even Simmons—would get there in time, Sam bolted to the right. A few seconds later, he heard the roar of an engine and the squeal of tires as Barricade tore after him.

Sam cursed, wasting precious breath, as an area on his ribs started to pulsate, meaning that the stitches were threatening to burst.

_Great, just great. I survived the king of all Decepticons, and what will finally get me? The fact that my injuries haven't healed yet. _

Sam came across the neighbourhood park, and he hid behind the foliage, clutching his side. He knew that Barricade was playing with him; the Decepticon hadn't even turned his scanners on, opting instead to hunt down his quarry by sight.

He gulped as Barricade rumbled by, close enough to Sam's hiding place that he could see every single letter in minute detail of "To punish and enslave."

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Barricade said softly. He rolled past, and Sam let himself breathe a tightly held breath.

Then his eyes widened as he heard Barricade's engine roar once again, and the Decepticon started going in reverse. Sam ran haphazardly out of the park, hitting another street, ignoring his increasingly painful side, and tried not to think about how Barricade just rammed through the foliage, right where Sam had been before.

The lights were all off in this part of the neighbourhood, he noted bitterly. Clearly the good people here were not at all disturbed by the clash of giants, the noise muffled by distance.

He came to another intersection, and came to another abrupt stop as a dark truck cut off his path, and the passenger door opened. For a precious, hope-filled second, Sam thought it was Ironhide, before he realized that the vehicle was an Escalade, not a Topkick. The driver, however, was familiar.

"Simmons!" Sam said in relief. He was _clutching _his side now. His body wasn't appreciating all the falling, running, and stopping, and it was hurting as much now as it did when he first exited Mission City nearly a month ago. He would have hugged and kissed the man if he didn't hate his guts so much.

"Get in!" He didn't need to be told twice. He got into the passenger seat, and the Escalade tore off. "Please fasten your seatbelt," Simmons said calmly as the houses whizzed past them and as Barricade's enraged roar filled the air. "Safety first."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Thanks, Simmons, guess I owe you," Sam muttered, doing as he was bid, wincing as his ribs protested every single one of his movements. "Hey, where's the rest of your team?" Simmons gave no answer, but since he was making crazy movements, weaving in and out of neighbourhoods and making sharp turns at intersections in an attempt to lose Barricade, Sam didn't press for one.

Eventually, they did lose Barricade. Or, rather, Barricade just seemed to give up. Sam didn't know why; Barricade was keeping up with them easily, but after a few minutes, he just pulled over. Sam watched as his figure got smaller and smaller in the rear view mirror.

"Okay," he said slowly. "That's weird." Then: "Bumblebee!" he yelled, sitting upright sharply, and wincing again as his body again reminded him of a few things. "We have to go back!"

Simmons gave no answer.

"Simmons! Come on, don't be such a—" Sam reached over to shake Simmons' shoulder, and was surprised when his hand went right through the driver. Sam's jaw dropped as he looked down at his trembling hand, and then looked up again at the driver seat. It was now empty. Sam was alone in the car.

With fear and dread rising up in him once again, and scarcely noticing how the seatbelt strap was tightening of its own accord, Sam's gaze fell on the steering wheel. The streetlights cast illumination on it at intervals, and soon Sam saw what he had missed when he first got into the car. Where Bumblebee and the rest of the Autobots had an Autobot insignia, this vehicle had a Decepticon insignia.

The locks clicked even before Sam reached for the door.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **do not own Transformers.

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Family Reunion

**2**

Sam had absolutely no idea where he was. Judging from the half-finished building he had been pushed into and the barely discernable piles of scrap metal surrounding him, he thought that he was in some sort of abandoned construction site, though he didn't know how far from Tranquility—if indeed they even left Tranquility.

It seemed as though the Escalade had driven for an hour or more. Night-time had had descended in its fully shadowy glory by then, and there were no streetlamps lighting the way. The Decepticon had not used headlights. It had remained silent throughout the drive, refusing to answer to either Sam's questions or his curses or his insults.

At the end of their 'journey,' it had stopped, undid Sam's seatbelt, and opened its door. Sam scrambled out, but before he could make a break for it, the Decepticon had transformed and had picked him up easily, pushing him into a darkened building before going off on its own. Another Decepticon had blocked the doorway.

Sam made his way slowly around the darkened building. He could still see the silhouette of the Decepticon framing the only exit. He toyed with the idea of breaking through a window when he felt cold metal arms encircle his midriff.

While inside the potentially evil Escalade, his mind had presented all sorts of rather ugly explanations as to why it had nabbed him. _This _certainly wasn't in the list.

"Mine!" his smallest captor proclaimed.

"No," Sam said, his voice flat.

"Mine!"

"No, I'm not."

"_Not _mine?"

Sam looked down at the spindly thing that had wrapped its arms around him. Its voice had wavered with that last statement, and it looked up at him, optics quickly opening and shutting in an expression of distress. Sam sighed, and threw up his arms in resignation.

"Okay, fine. I'm yours, okay?"

It gave a squeal of delight, and brought him into a tighter hug. He winced. This wasn't doing his still-healing body any favours. Sam sighed again.

There was a slight rumble in the background, the sound of the sentry coming towards them, and Sam found himself immediately picked up again, this time by something larger, as the small greenish-silver thing that still clung to him actually _laughed. _Sam cringed, the coldness of alien metal shooting through him as the vending-machine Transformer nuzzled him from the back.

He still didn't know what they wanted with him, but he didn't seem to be in any immediate danger. Plus, they seemed almost…playful, in a similar way that tiger cubs were playful.

Sam just hoped that he wasn't the lunch they were playing with just before they ate it.

**X x X**

His brother was back where he was supposed to be, back with them. Already the stench of the others—especially the yellow one—was going away, leaving the clean scent of father. Prndel was far away from where he had left his brothers and his sister, but he knew. The shiny thing in his chest told him so.

Prndel didn't know a lot about the world, but when he first woke up, he knew that he had siblings out there. They all smelled of father. There had been more, but only four were left.

Prndel had found his sister first, and then his other brother. He was the biggest, and so the oldest, so it was up to him to take care of them. He gave them names. Candy was the smallest, and so the youngest. Soda had been the only child in the middle before they found their other brother.

They had always known that there was another brother. They had thought that maybe he was the oldest, and just didn't know where they were, because if he knew, he'd be taking care of them.

They knew that father hadn't been good; his scent was clean, but father wasn't. Father had wanted to use them to do…to do something not nice. They knew that their brother had done something to stop father from doing what he was going to do. So, since that brother was the most powerful, it stood to reason that that brother was the oldest.

It had taken so long to find him because he was with the others, and the others had covered up his scent. It was Soda who found him first, but Soda couldn't do anything, because he was small and weak compared to the yellow other that had their brother, and doing anything could hurt someone.

Soda told Prndel.

Their brother was small and weak. Weaker than Candy, who was the smallest and the lightest and the weakest. He didn't know that he didn't belong with the others, that the others would kill him and his siblings if they knew. So then Prndel was the oldest, and Prndel had to take care of his siblings.

It was as simple as that.

So now that Prndel had all his siblings, it was time to find their other relatives; their step-father who, even now, must have been looking for them, and all their aunts and uncles. Prndel had heard them calling before, but wanted to wait until they had their brother back before they answered.

Now they did, and now they could be family again.

Prndel started broadcasting, and he got an answer.

**X x X**

Bumblebee came to, opening his optics to the dark, starless sky. Bumblebee didn't know what was going on. One minute, he was fighting off Starscream, trying to keep him from the surrounding humans. Then…then…

"Sam!" he bolted upright, only to have Ratchet push him back down into a lying position.

"Easy there!" the medic snapped. "Don't you dare undo all this wiring—it took forever to seal your energon leaks, let me tell you…"

"What happened?" Bumblebee said urgently, his hand coming up to clasp Ratchet's arm. Ratchet's expression softened, and he let Bumblebee's hand stay where it was while he retrieved some more tools from his subspace.

"Starscream," Ratchet said. "We barely came in time to pull him off you—"

"Did you find Sam? I told him to run, but I lost track of him…" Bumblebee looked around distractedly. He was inside Optimus' fully unfolded trailer. Extra weapons and medical supplies were kept there. From the screams and the questions going on outside, he ascertained that they were still in the human neighbourhood.

"Ironhide and Jazz are searching for him as we speak," Ratchet said, inspecting more of Bumblebee's severed wires. "Do not worry; he can't have gone far."

"How's our Sleeping Beauty?" a new voice said. Bumblebee's head snapped up, and Ratchet sternly shoved him back down.

"What are you doing here, Simmons?" Bumblebee demanded. Simmons came in, but his movements lacked the usual sauntering gait.

"Your pet called me for back-up," he said, ignoring the glares from the two mechs. "Fine mess you've made of things too. Mission City was an easy cover-up compared to this…"

"Agent Simmons, I will politely ask you to leave my work area," Ratchet said tightly, restraining Bumblebee from getting up again. "So unless you have information that's of any _use—_"

"I just thought you'd like to know," Simmons said, taking a good look around the trailer before resting his eyes on Bumblebee. His expression was not sardonic nor amused nor accusing nor condescending, as it usually was. Instead, it was…blank. He held up the battered remains of a cell phone in a plastic bag. An Autobot insignia, which had originally been inside the cell phone and which functioned as a tracking device, was visible. "I'm pretty sure that this belongs to your pet."

"That's Sam's," Bumblebee said in a disbelieving tone. "But…but what—"

"Agent Simmons," Optimus rumbled, stepping into the work area. To Bumblebee's distress, Sam wasn't with him. "Please leave." Simmons gave the Autobot leader a long, cool look.

"Fine," he said finally. "But if you don't tell him, then I will." He left, tossing the bag carelessly on his way out. Optimus caught it out of reflex. The way he looked at the bag…Bumblebee hadn't seen that look since…

"With all due respect, Optimus, can't this wait?" Ratchet asked irritably. "I just finished making sure he doesn't bleed out, and there are still—"

"I'm sorry, friend, but it cannot." Optimus' tone and the look on his faceplate stopped Ratchet from further protests. "Bumblebee," Optimus continued carefully. "Simmons' team found Sam's cell phone near some tire tracks. We haven't confirmed anything, but they are sure that they belong to Barricade."


End file.
